


A Place in the Sun

by sentimentalscribe



Series: Quiz-verse [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Established Relationship, Going to be updating regularly :), Guess Who's Back, High School AU, It's going to be a fun time I'm excited!!, Just pure summer hijinks and youth and being stupidly in love, M/M, Mortal AU, No need to have read the original fic, This is going to be summery as FUCK you guys, You aren't ready for the sheer amount of summer fluff contained in this sequel, back again, solangelo, with a sprinkle of seriousness and a good ol' dash of hormones
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2020-03-26 18:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19011406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sentimentalscribe/pseuds/sentimentalscribe
Summary: A spark flashed in Will's eyes. “We should do it. Let’s go to Rome and camp out in the Colosseum at night and hide from the security guards using Home-Alone-style trickery and clever ruses.”“Don’t you have SAT prep in the morning?”“Hm. That does throw a wrench in the plan.”-It's summer vacation! A continuation of my high school AU, The Quiz. (No need to have read the original.)This is going to be a fluffy one, folks. Get ready for idiotic teens doing idiotic things to the soundtrack of a John Hughes movie. Enjoy!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> *Rolls up in a hot pink convertible* Get in, beloved readers, we're finally doing the summer spinoff. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

 

_“Hey, Nico. Sorry about calling. I’m driving and on speakerphone. I was just going to let you know that I know you were busy with your job and everything last month, but now that you’re not, I’m free basically the whole break if you ever want to come over! Open house. Just let me know beforehand so I can make sure I’m actually there. Uh… okay, that’s it. Bye. See you soon, because I miss you. The little kids at the hospital called me out the other day because I’m apparently always talking about you. Wait, shit, is that immortalized in voicemail history forever now? Embarrassing. Okay, bye, Neeks.”_

Nico smiled in spite of himself and brought his phone down from his ear. The message was from the previous night, right after he'd conked out from his final eight-hour shift at the fencing club.

Thoughts of blond curls were always the best way to start the morning. He stretched and sleepily texted back, _Look out your window._

A few minutes passed with nothing. Then:

_Will: i don’t see you??? are you at the wrong house_

_Nico: Never said I was outside. I’m just encouraging you to look out into the world and smell the roses. I’m very wholesome_

_Will: fuck you di angelo i thought you were doing some sort of romantic surprise_

_Nico: That would imply that I woke up more than thirty seconds ago_

_Will: you are a scourge on humanity_

_Nico: I’ll be there at 6?_

_Will: <3 _

Nico rolled sloppily out of bed into some semblance of a standing position, grimacing at the heart emoji. Will feeling comfortable enough with him to now shower hearts everywhere was the World’s Worst Thing, as voted by a select panel of qualified professionals. It was pointless to try and stop him at this point, though. Unstoppable-force-and-immovable-object type of situation.

The sun was streaming in through his bedroom window, bright and blinding and reminding Nico to appreciate it before school started again. He wisely made the most of its splendor by shutting the blinds, sending his room into absolute darkness, and falling back to sleep until he absolutely had to get up. Perfect. That was what summer was for, after all.

 

-

 

Nico rolled up at Will’s house at 6:15 because he had never heard of good time management in his life and parked by the curb. He would never get over how weird it felt to park such an obnoxiously expensive car in normal human neighborhood. He’d considered saving up for a cheaper one himself with his job funds, but that almost seemed more privileged. Refusing money to save up for himself when lots of people would have killed for that cash. It was just bad all around.

He swung the car door shut and the sound echoed around the street. He always wondered if the neighbors had an opinion of him, or if they noticed his constant appearances at all. He liked to think he had achieved cryptid status.

A knocking noise made Nico look up. Will had moved aside his blinds and was waving from inside his room’s window. He said something that got drowned out by the glass.

Nico put a hand to his ear like, _what?_

Will unlatched his window and pulled it up. “I said hi. Also, you look like you just rolled out of bed.”

“I don’t feel the need to respond to accusations.”

Will was beaming. “Come on, meet me inside. I made lemonade.”

Yep, Nico still wasn’t over having a boyfriend who actually made fresh lemonade. “Is it made with salt instead of sugar?”

Will groaned and walked away from the window, flipping Nico off over his shoulder. “That was _one_ time!”

Nico suppressed a smile and headed to the door. Past all of the childhood pottery and stepping stones, a little triceratops figurine stood by the doormat. He knelt and grabbed the spare key from underneath without a thought.

Ugh. He always got stuck on the second lock. “Will, can you let me in? Your door still hates me.”

“I believe in you,” Will’s muffled voice yelled back. “Perseverance is an important skill.”

“I’m going to kick your door in.”

“Hey, if that’s what it takes.”

Nico rolled his eyes and attempted to use the key again. This time, it got fully jammed in the lock. He sighed into eternity. “Will? Please, I -”

The door swung open, revealing Will standing much closer on the other side than Nico had budgeted in his personal space. Not that he was complaining. “Oh. Thanks, uh -”

Will pulled him in and kissed him right there in the doorway. Nico would never be over the shot of adrenaline that came with that, the stupid urge to grin every time it happened.

Will pulled away, leaving Nico to just kind of mentally regain his footing for a second. He said, “Sorry. I was trying to get Bella to stop eating my chicken nuggets. Otherwise I would have gotten the door.”

“It’s fine.” Nico looked him over. Surfer shorts, a disgustingly bright t-shirt, and hair a mess, probably from driving with the windows down again. He was perfect. “How are you?”

“Better, now that I’m away from Hedge and finally seeing my boyfriend for the first time in twenty years.”

Nico ignored the red probably taking over his face. “Hedge? Like, Coach Hedge?”

“He’s volunteering at my hospital now. It’s horrifying. It’s bad enough I have do deal with Hell Supervisor, now this?”

Nico mentally added the fact that Will referred to it as ‘his’ hospital, despite literally just being a volunteer, to the list of things he loved about him. “Dear god. Does he have the patients running drills around the cardiac wing?”

“He probably would if he could. He did try and get one of mine to eat this nutrition bar that it said right there on her chart she was allergic to. Like, if a chart says three things and one of them is ‘Cannot come into physical contact with peanuts or peanut products’, why would you -” He stopped and took a deep breath. “Not important. Sparknotes: My gym teacher is my coworker now and it’s hell. More importantly, how are you?” He took Nico’s hand and led them to the kitchen table. “I missed you. You’ve been gone all the time.”

Nico's heart did a little flip. “I’m good. Camp is over now, so that’s a relief.”

“Is the next generation properly trained?”

Nico snorted. “If by that, you mean their parents have now paid way too much money to have me teach them to swing their swords around and yell.”

“I mean, that’s what I would do in battle, too, so you’re doing great.”

It was so good to actually see Will again. Sure, they’d been texting constantly and meeting when they could, but Nico’s job had been pretty constant and Will had picked up extra hours. _(Volunteering._ He could not stress enough how overly invested in an unpaid position this boy got.)

Sunlight streamed in through the sliding glass door, Bella pacing around on the other side, and the yellow-orange stucco walls looked lighter in the summer shine. Traces of flour dusted the whole kitchen and Nico strongly suspected Will and his mom had embarked on some sort of pastry mistake in the last day or two.

That reminded Nico: “Where’s your mom? Isn’t she usually back from work?”

“Eh, she’s been working nights. It’s hourly, so at least she’s making bank. Always more animals to give CPR to.”

Nico was reasonably sure that wasn’t how it worked, but he didn’t know enough about veterinarians to dispute it. “Huh. Well, good for her?”

Will shrugged. Then, “Oh! I forgot, come see!” He pushed out his chair with a wooden screech and bolted for the back door, then tracked back and grabbed Nico’s hand. “Come on! Outside!”

Nico tried not to look too adoring at Will’s sudden transformation into a puppy. “Okay, just -”

“Now! It’s urgent!”

“Can I get some lemonade first?”

Will narrowed his eyes and paused. “... Granted.”

Nico snorted and headed for the fridge, grabbing the pitcher (which was decorated with lemons). (Again, how was he dating this boy?) He felt a surge of pride when he didn’t have to ask where the cups were and he poured a glass, feeling wholesome.

Will didn’t let it last. “Okay, you insane motherfuckers, are you ready for the most incredible thing you’ve ever seen?”

Nico looked behind him to the empty living room. “Who are you talking to? We’re alone.”

“The _crowd.”_ Will gestured to nothing. “Let’s go!”

Nico bemusedly followed him out the sliding glass doors, taking a sip of his lemonade. Tangier than usual. It was good. “How have I never been in your backyard?”

“I don’t know. There wasn’t much out here. But now…” Will presented with a flourish a hammock strung between two trees. “Hammock!”

Nico raised his eyebrows. “Wait, that's it?”

“Of course.” Will looked at him with a direness that suggested world-saving intel. “Have you _seen_ this hammock? Look at it. It’s in its own little nook and everything. It's like some sort of fairy woodland. It’s the best thing you’ve ever seen.”

“I guess it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen, then.”

“Now you get it. I haven’t tried sitting on it yet because we placed it over the gravel and if I fall it will hurt and I’m terrified.”

Nico just stared at him.

“I will someday! Sometimes the things you love can scare you. Like how you, specifically, think it’s acceptable to chug two energy drinks when you can’t find a Redbull.”

“I mean, I haven’t died yet.”

“You shock and frighten me. At your funeral, I will not speak kindly of your hubris.” Will gestured for them to sit on the grass and they did. “Anyway, my mom impulse-bought it with the cash we got from old Darla finally kicking the bucket.”

“Thanks, Darla!” Nico didn’t know who Darla was, but was never one to object to gallows humor. “Who’s that?”

“The worst aunt. Told my mom she should disown me for disrespecting God’s will or whatever. Banned from all family weddings because she kept yelling during the ceremonies that races shouldn’t mix. The whole package. Bye, Darla!”

“Sheesh. Bye, Darla.”

“But now we have a hammock!” Will ran his hands over the fabric. “So deluxe. So elegant. So posh. I truly know what it is to have class now.”

“Well, you eat Twizzlers, so I don’t think you’ll ever have class.”

Will gasped. “Never, in all my days -” He ripped up a handful of grass and threw it.

“I have an allergy!” Nico laughed and threw some back.

“So do I, but we fight like warriors!” Will threw more directly in Nico’s hair.

Nico started to retaliate, but he suddenly erupted in laughter. Will looked like a mess, grass marks on his elbows and knees and green littering his shirt. His eyes sparkled in that way that was uniquely his, like he was seeing straight through your skin to all the hope you had to offer the world, and he was grinning, just watching Nico have a laughing fit like an idiot.

Then Will flopped back on the grass, so Nico did, too, and they laid side by side in the clover like some sort of goddamn utopian cartoon, Nico’s lemonade forgotten on the stepping stones over by the hammock and the sky so blindingly blue that it seemed like it shouldn’t have been allowed.

Will articulated what Nico couldn’t, which kind of seemed to be the story of their relationship, and said, “We have an entire summer ahead of us.”

Nico had managed to stop laughing, which, he realized, would have sounded like an absurd problem to have a year ago. “Yeah.”

Will turned his head in the grass and looked at Nico a few inches away. Commence butterflies. He leaned in conspiratorially and Nico thought he might have been about to kiss him.

Will locked eyes with him very seriously. “Nico, I’m going to fall out of that hammock so many fucking times.”

Never mind. Nico couldn’t stop laughing again.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back!! Or for those of you who are new, welcome! (Most notes at the end will be much shorter, I promise. Bear with me.)
> 
> If you enjoyed, I beseecheth thou to kudo, comment (!!), bookmark, screech like an unknowable chaos deity, feast on the bones of the patriarchy, or check out my user, because it super duper makes my day. Also, it feels a little strange starting from scratch again, so if you talk to me, I won't be so lonely in my writer prison.
> 
> Anyway, after a six-month break, I figured it was time to start up that summer sequel I promised. I'm really, really stoked to be jumping back in! I missed this AU. Hope I see at least one or two familiar faces sometime during the course of this! I see this being anywhere from 15k-50k and posting will be at the very least once a month.
> 
> See you next chapter!
> 
> twitter: sentimentalscr1  
> tumblr: sentimentalscribe


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Please Do Not Trust These Boys With Balance Coordination. Or planning the future.

 

“Frozen yogurt. This is a disgrace.”

Will snorted at Nico’s adorably wrinkled-up nose. It never got old. “We had to branch out eventually. There aren't enough ice cream places not to get sick of.”

“You underestimate me.”

Will smiled but didn't respond, electing to take another bite instead. His candy-sherbet-sugar monstrosity hit the spot just right on such a hot day. Nico ate more, too, but of an equally monstrous chocolate creation with Oreos sticking out every which way. It was pretty glorious.

Nico stirred some fudge absentmindedly, dark hair falling in his eyes. It had been easier lately to do this, to have little moments where silence didn’t need to be filled. In addition to being generally nice, it gave Will plenty of opportunity to go all heart-eyes in peace.

After a moment, Nico asked, “Do you know where you’re going for college?”

“Uh.” Will quickly chewed and swallowed a gummy worm. “Why?”

“I don’t know.” Nico looked down at his yogurt, continuing to stir. “You’re going to do some fancy medical program, right?”

“I mean, I don’t know about fancy, but yeah. I want to go to medical school. You know that, though.”

“Yeah.”

A pause. Nico didn’t elaborate. 

Will raised his eyebrows. “So… cool?”

“Cool.” Nico stirred a bit more, in case that one last milliliter of fudge somehow hadn’t melted through by now. “I don’t know. I guess I’ve kind of been realizing we only have a year left.”

Will’s stomach churned a little. “Yeah. Well, a year and a summer. It’s just - yeah. I don’t like to think about it.” He didn't say more, now understanding the appeal of staring down at one’s frozen yogurt. “It sucks, but that’s how it goes, I guess.”

Nico nodded. Quiet. 

After a second, Nico blurted, “I have literally no idea what I want to do with my life.”

Will looked up at him. His eyes were off to the side, fingers tapping, toes tapping, with really just everything in agitated motion.

Will hadn't realized that they had never discussed any of this. That seemed strange in retrospect, but it had just never come up.

Or, Will thought as he watched Nico now, maybe Nico had been avoiding it.

He smiled in an attempt to lighten the mood. “Lots of people don’t know what they want to do when they’re sixteen. You’re fine. Besides, it’s not like you’re going to go broke with student debt or anything no matter where you go.”

Nico cringed a bit at that, but nodded. “Yeah, I know, but it’s not that. It’s like - I don’t know. Everyone seems to know at least what kind of thing they want to do and I have absolutely no idea. I don’t even have hobbies.”

“What are you talking about? Yes, you do.”

“Playing in mythomagic tournaments don’t count as a hobby.”

Will went  _ what?  _ with his arms. “If that isn’t a hobby, I have literally no idea what is.”

“You know what I mean. You have your doctor thing and Percy has swim team and Annabeth is going to be president and even Leo is getting a scholarship to some place for mechanical engineering and here I am with no ambitions or talents or anything!”

Will didn’t know what to say that Nico wouldn’t automatically bat away. This wasn’t really something he could fix. He tried for humor. “This frozen yogurt really took a toll on you, huh? We can go back to ice cream if you want.”

Nico snorted. Then he laughed. ”Yeah,” he said, not really selling it. “That must be it.”

  
-

 

“I'm not going outside. It's a hundred and seventy degrees out there.”

“Nicoooo,” Will whined. He was fully aware he was being annoying, draped backwards over the couch as Nico looked for something to watch on Will’s TV. “It's not that hot. If it was, we’d all be boiling.”

“Twelve million degrees, then.”

“But hammock.” Will didn’t see why he needed to say anything more. Nico had seen the mystical splendor of the hammock, had he not? 

“But heat stroke.”

“But hammock, because your boyfriend wants to try it out and you love him.”

“Ugh.” Nico swung his legs off the couch, a grimace on his face that didn't hide his blush one bit, and he stood. “You're lucky I'm wearing shorts and won't die of heat stroke.”

Well, he was right about one thing. Will was indeed lucky Nico was wearing shorts, partly because it was such a rarity and partly because it made him look like a completely different and somehow even more adorable person. (They were black denim cutoffs, for the curious. Will had already thanked the heavens for Nico’s idea of a summer look more times than he could count.)

Will led him toward the sliding glass door and opened it for him. “You’ll live. I’ve seen you in a hoodie and jeans in a hundred and ten.”

“My reputation is a curse,” Nico muttered, but he stepped outside and crossed to the other side of the backyard. Will happily followed.

The Hammock, Supreme Object of Leisure and Goodness, was as perfect as ever, strung between two trees, idyllic and homey.

Nico must have noticed his mental worship, because he raised a wary eyebrow. “You do know this is just some fabric tacked onto some trees, right?”

“No, Nico. It is salvation. It is Truth.”

Nico snorted, but shrugged in resignation and crossed to go lay down in it. After some wobbling, he managed it. “Alright, it’s comfortable. But can both of us even fit?”

“Of course! The internet wouldn't lie to me.” Will ignored his very real doubts about the truth of that statement and clumsily tried to get in next to him. It was an awkward and teetering affair, but it worked. 

“Uh, hi,” Nico said once they were settled. They were practically on top of each other, which Will certainly didn't mind, but by the way Nico’s eyes had widened, there might have been a little claustrophobia happening. “I don’t know if this actually counts as fitting two people.”

“Babies, maybe? I bet this would fit a ton of babies.”

“I mean, sure.” Nico’s eyes kept flickering over Will’s face. “This is fine, though.”

Will suddenly realized there might be less claustrophobia happening and more accidental flirting that Will hadn’t intended happening. He tried to get with the program. “Oh. Well, I don’t mind either. The view is nice.” 

That was true. He and Nico’s shoulders were mashed together uncomfortably as Will tried not to fall onto him, but Nico had started to tan a little and his eyes were wonderfully dark in this light and Will could smell some sort of oak or cedar thing that was new but definitely welcome. 

He had just been about to ask Nico about it when Nico narrowed his eyes. “Shut up.”

“What?”

“You’re doing it again.”

“Doing what?”

Nico gestured at Will’s face. “That. Staring. You look like an idiot.”

Will laughed. “Can’t help it. As established, there’s an excellent view.”

“Oh my god,” Nico groaned.

“Five stars. Ten out of ten. Would recom-”

Nico was already kissing him, pulling him in by his collar and ignoring his muffled noise of surprise with a smile. Will smiled into it, too, bringing a hand up to that place right at the corner of Nico’s jaw where he could feel his hair at his fingertips, warm skin from the back of his neck in his palm.

Will could definitely deal with this. He was already kind of sideways with the hammock pushing them together, so he let gravity take over and went ahead and rolled on top of Nico for convenience’s sake. He tried not to laugh at the noise Nico made at that, electing to let his lips do the thinking for the moment.

They moved like they couldn’t decide if they were being lazy or hurried, Nico’s thumb slowly tracing small circles on the side of Will’s neck as Will threaded a hand through that thick hair he’d always loved. Their bodies pressed together in the limited space and Will just let himself enjoy everything about how Nico felt and moved and pressed. The way Nico kissed was a comfortable, if not predictable, flow now that Will could just smile and go along with, and he knew Nico was going to need to pull away for air in three… two...

Nico pulled away and Will patted himself on the back for being an all-knowing entity of supergenius.

Nico started to lean in again, but then held back for a second. He opened his mouth to say something, then apparently thought better of it and pulled Will back in. But at that same second, Will was shifting onto his elbow for a better angle and it all turned out so that Nico accidentally just smacked him in the face with his face. Will would have laughed, but the momentum from both of them moving again was just enough of an upset to throw off their delicate balance and -

“Fuck!” They flipped out of the hammock, crashing immediately onto the sharp gravel below. Will hadn’t realized he’d shouted until he already had. Nico also yelled something unintelligible but less profane.

They sat in a crumpled pile on the ground. Will was pretty sure he’d scraped his elbow, but didn’t want to move to check. “Ow.”

“Ow.”

They looked at each other for not half a second before bursting into stomach-hurting laughter.

After Will nearly hyperventilated and Nico had long gone red in the face, they eventually wound down into more of a steady giggle. Will wiped a literal tear from his eye. 

“Anyway,” he tried, but Nico interrupted with a wave of his hand.

“Give me a second. I think I swallowed a rock.”

Which sent Will into another round of snickering. Then, “I was going to say, I forgot to mention earlier that everyone is going to Ambrosia tomorrow if we want to go. It was just going to be Piper and me, but then Jason heard and wanted to come, too, and it snowballed.”

“Stop right there. We are not escaping the raw humiliation of this moment. We need to have a moment of penance for how monumentally mortifying we are.”

Will laughed, standing up and brushing gravel off. “I don’t know. I thought it was pretty funny.”

“Don’t laugh. The universe will punish us for not being properly embarrassed.”

Will could only smile at the disgruntled heap of Nico still on the ground. He resembled a bat that had flung itself into a window and was now shaking off its wings. “Want to head inside? I hear it’s less tippy in there.”

“Yes,” Nico grumbled, standing up and walking to Will. “It is going to take a lot to get me out here ever again. I hope you know that.”

Will shrugged and started to lead them to the house. “Guess I’ll just have to be convincing.”

“I -” Nico went red. “Ugh. One of these days I’ll try out that first-degree murder thing. Then you’ll see.”

‘Hm,” Will mused absentmindedly, kissing him on the cheek and opening the door. “Let me know if you need any surgical gloves.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys don't understand how fucking excited I was to yeet them off that hammock. 
> 
> Alright, please remember to kudo/comment(!!!)/bookmark/collect a complex blend of various herbs and toadstool shavings to make a potion for curing the sick and elderly/share if you enjoyed! I appreciate (read: crave) your feedback like I'm dying in the desert and the only water is your thoughts. 
> 
> Until next chapter! :)
> 
> twitter: sentimentalscr1  
> tumblr: sentimentalscribe


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all are ready for AMERICANA because we're going to a mom-and-pop joint for lunch!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update, guys! Life has been what the kids call "fucking insane" lately and there was not room on the to-do list for gays. I know you guys are cool, though, which made it less stressful. I'll try to keep it within the month in the future!

 

Nico still hadn’t managed to figure out how to breathe whenever Will kissed him like that.

They were curled in an armchair in Will’s house, the sun fuzzily falling through the curtains, and they had been planning to go out and meet their friends at a burger joint nearby until it seemed that they just. Weren’t. Not right now, apparently.

Will’s face was hot in Nico’s palm, both of them pulling each other in with probably an unnecessary amount of energy, but Nico wasn’t really processing that hard. He was kissing with the familiarity of a boyfriend of a year but the disbelief of someone who remembered every time he opened his eyes how gorgeous Will was.

They pulled away just an inch to breathe and Nico was practically knocked out again. Will was red, hair everywhere, and his eyes were trained on Nico’s lips like he was about to dive back in. Fuck, he was lucky.

But then Will paused. “What time is it?” he asked.

“Booo.” Nico narrowed his eyes, but fished out his phone. “4:14.”

“Shit. We should have left five minutes ago.”

Nico kissed him again. “They don’t care. They’ll amuse themselves with milkshakes or whatever kids are into these days.”

“Hm. I have indeed heard that they bring all the boys to the yard.”

Nico held a one-second business meeting in his head and, after coming to an agreement with all of the appropriate representatives needed, decided to push Will off of him onto the floor. So he did. “We’re leaving. You have officially killed the mood.”

Will gaped from down on the ground. “Excuse me, ow?”

“You left me no choice.”

“That’s dictator talk right there.” But Will fetched his shoes by the door, too, and started lacing them up. “This is how Napoleon started.”

“Was Napoleon a dictator? I thought he was just one of them.”

“One of what?”

“You know, like. Just one of the big leader people in history.”

“I think he was a dictator. I’m pretty sure.” Will peered off into the middle distance, suddenly looking unsure.

They both stared into space for a second, brains churning.

Then, “Wait, we need to go.”

Nico snapped out of it. “Right.”

They finished their laces, grabbed wallets and jackets (well, Nico took his, but Will seemed to think that was insane in this heat) and Nico pulled Will in for one more drawn-out stolen kiss in the doorway. He smiled in satisfaction when Will leaned into it, breathing in his scent, and Nico caught a glimmer of hope that maybe they could call a rain check on lunch after all.

But Will eventually pulled away, albeit with a reluctant air, and Nico had to follow him out into the sunshine. History would mark this day as a tragedy for the ages.

Will turned to lock the door, which had to be done from the outside for some annoying reason, and Nico was so preoccupied with annoyance at that thing that he almost forgot to notice the summer sun hitting Will’s face.

Never fear, he took a moment to appreciate. Phew. That was a close one.

It struck Nico how literally blinding Will was. His hair was actually hard to look at when Nico’s eyes were still adjusting from the indoor light and his white tee was way too bright to be real. And then there were flashes from glinting keys as he struggled with the lock. The universe was sending a very clear message: _Angel temporarily sent to Earth. Handle with caution. Maybe wear sunglasses._

That reminded Nico - he’d forgotten his sunglasses at home. Dammit. He let himself just watch and smile for a moment more until Will finally managed to recover his key from the door.

“Thank god.” Will shoved the keys into his pocket like they might run away if they got a taste of daylight. “The first thing I’ll do with my paycheck is get new locks.”

Nico desperately wanted to offer to help with that, but he knew before he asked that Will would never accept it. So he bit his tongue and started on the walk down to the car.

On a glance over his shoulder, he barely suppressed a laugh. Oh, no. “Will. There’s a - you’ve got -” He raised a hand to his head. “Like, right here?”

“What?”

“Just follow me. Use my car mirror, you’ll see.”

-

One fixed rumpled hairdo (that Nico may or may not have caused earlier) later, Nico pulled into the lot of Ambrosia, a run-down mom-and-pop place that did not match up to its fancy title.

Will had been talking the whole car ride about how hard it was to park there and how he was ready to make fun of Nico's parallel parking, but then Nico absolutely nailed it on the first try. So obviously, he was officially the king of driving now and entitled to one very smug look at Will. He promptly cashed it in.

Once they arrived at one of the beat-up red tables out front, there sat Piper, Annabeth, Hazel, and -

Nico gaped at them. “Thalia? Reyna? What are you doing here?”

Thalia, in not quite as much punk gear as usual, and Reyna, dressed in a t-shirt in public for the first time Nico had ever seen, were sandwiched between the others on the small benches. Nico was struck by how _adult_ they looked, even in casual home clothes. It was like they’d been gone five years, not one or two.

Thalia spread her arms. “Back from college, dude! I figured I’d get a month or so in here before I head back. And this one here -” She gestured to Reyna across the table. “Finally finished mock trial competitions. By the way, tell Nico how it went.”

Reyna gave what, for her, was a dazzling grin. (More of a nod of acknowledgement with a quirk to the lips, but Nico could read between the lines.) “The judge didn’t bother to use the full deliberation time. We just won immediately.”

“Congrats!” Will said. “I’m Will, by the way.” He gestured vaguely in Nico’s direction. After a second, he said, “Boyfriend,” by way of clarification.

Nico still loved getting to introduce or be introduced that way. It made it feel official, like they were responsible mutual homeowners who felt comfortable broadcasting their status to the world, maybe in the hopes that they would get a tax break.

But yeah, it was still embarrassing to tell Reyna in particular. Thalia he hadn’t seen in years, so that was less personal, but Reyna was special.

Nico eyed her, trying to gauge a reaction. After a minuscule once-over of Will that Nico was sure he was the only one who noticed, Reyna passed her cursory seal of approval via nod.

Nico hadn’t realized how much he would care, but his shoulders instantly relaxed. Thalia, on the other hand, took one quick look at Will and barely restrained making a face. Okay, well, it wasn’t Nico’s fault that Thalia distrusted all men she didn’t know.

Piper scooted over to the edge of her bench. “Alright, everyone. Girls’ party is over. Let’s make some room for the boys.”

Will made a beeline to go sit next to Piper, which Nico only had a second to feel offended by before Hazel waved him over to sit by her. He accepted the bandage for the wound and took a seat on the rusty bench.

Piper must have noticed Nico’s face, because she laughed and slung an arm around Will’s shoulder. “I don’t know how to tell you this, Nico, but I’m Will’s favorite.”

Will pushed her arm off, but also laughed. “There’s shade on this side! It’s a hundred degrees!”

“You just love me better. You can say it.”

Annabeth shot up in her seat, talking for the first time in a while. “I was supposed to FaceTime Percy ten minutes ago.”

“Oh no!” Hazel brought a hand to her mouth, one of her little mannerisms that made it seem like she was perpetually LARPing Snow White.

“Sorry, guys, I’ll be right back. I can’t believe Google Calendar didn’t alert me.”

“Oh, was that what that was for?” Thalia nudged at Annabeth’s phone on the table. “It lit up with just a fish emoji earlier. I didn’t ask.”

“That was it.” Annabeth groaned to herself and smacked her head. “I’m just going to check in real quick and hopefully come right back. Don’t eat my fries. I’ll know. Good to see you guys!” She grabbed her phone and circled around to the back of the building, tapping furiously at the screen.

“That’s dedication,” Thalia said, swirling one of her fries in a concoction of ketchup, ranch, and some third mysterious brown condiment. “I would have just sent a text saying I forgot and then turned on airplane mode."

Hazel turned to Will. “Percy’s been swamped with school stuff, so he’s staying in California to study. Annabeth only agreed to split up if they had scheduled meetings on the calendar.”

“I love that girl.” Piper smiled fondly in her direction. “I’ve never used a calendar in my life, much less scheduled a call with my boyfriend.”

“And Nico showed up at my house an hour late last week with no explanation other than he overslept, so even you’re beating his game," Will said. 

“Woah!” Nico put his hands up. “That was a soft three-o’-clock!”

“It was a firm three-o’-clock, I assure you.”

Reyna interrupted, “Were you two going to get any food? Because I was going to get some ice cream, but I was waiting to go with you. And it seems you’re not going.”

“Oh.” Nico looked down at the table, as if somehow food he’d forgotten would be sitting right there. He looked up. “Sure. Will?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Reyna nodded (a resounding cheer, once translated). The three of them peeled themselves off the sticky seats and headed inside.

It was about as cramped as a restaurant could possibly be, but it got away with it because it was so charming. Yellow and orange trim decorated the walls and doorframe, a handwritten menu that hadn’t been changed in fifty years hanging above the counter. There was barely any seating room inside save for a few worn-in booths.

Nico stepped back to look up at the menu, but Will went right up to the counter. Horrifyingly, Katie Gardner, one of their classmates, stood behind the register. Her dark hair was pulled back into a hairnet and she wore a yellow-and-white Ambrosia visor. Nico resisted the urge to hide, even though he and Katie had never even spoken more than once. 

Will greeted her without having a social breakdown, which was impressive, and ordered a burger or something. Then he looked back at Nico. “Do you know what you want? I’m paying.”

The only reason Nico didn’t insist otherwise was because this was pretty cheap food, and if it made Will feel good to pay sometimes, this was a good time to get it out of his system. “Uh, I think just fries.”

Will turned back to Katie. “He also wants ice cream.”

“Oh, and ice cream.”

Reyna scoffed in the background, probably affectionately.

“What kind?” Katie asked, pen ready.

Nico opened his mouth, but Will said, “Chocolate, and hot fudge if you’ve got it. And in its own cup so he can pour it himself."

Nico stared at him. Will wasn’t even looking his way, just handing some cash over and minding his business. The dusty light of this place made him look nostalgic somehow, like he was captured in an old Polaroid. 

“I love you,” Nico blurted.

Will looked up, startled for a second, before he settled into a bemused smile. “Love you, too. Let’s move over so Reyna can order.”

“Right.” Nico stepped aside with Will to a corner as Reyna stepped up to the counter. They leaned up against the wall and Nico enjoyed the quiet for a minute. Some ‘80s tune played faintly through the loudspeakers, quietly enough so that he wouldn’t have been able to hear it if it had been busy.

After a little while of watching cars in comfortable silence, Will reached out and linked their pinkies.

Nico couldn’t suppress a smile. He squeezed back, feeling the sudden urge to give Will a bear hug. He didn't, because we can't always have what we want, and also because he was waiting with sharp ears for that ice cream to be ready.

He did risk a glance over at Reyna, though, to see if she was done paying.

She was actually already looking at him and Will's hands as she collected her change, eyebrows raised but not at all unkindly. Her eyes flicked up to meet Nico's with a face that said, _We’re talking later._

Nico resisted the urge to drop Will’s hand out of embarrassment. He was keenly aware that the last time the two of them had talked face-to-face, he had been in a terrible place where he’d talked to almost nobody and had probably vented to her a lot about how no one in the world would understand him. He hadn't realized how much had changed since she'd left. This was all probably strange to watch.

He shrugged at her, hoping he wasn’t going red.

There was definitely some catching up to do.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's that? The sound of me getting to write my Will & Piper brOTP again?? It's more likely than you think. Also, I apologize in advance that I'm never going to be able to write anything as realistic as two gays staring at the wall trying to share their one flickering brain cell to remember basic history trivia when they're already late to an event. I've peaked here. I don't know what to tell you.
> 
> Thank you for tuning in!! I beseecheth thou to kudo, cOmMenT, bookmark, call a flood down onto your hometown for its wicked deeds and sail away on an arc to start a new human race, or rec if you're enjoying so far! I appreciate it so so much. See you next chapter!
> 
> twitter: sentimentalscr1  
> tumblr: sentimentalscribe


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will, Nico, and Reyna do a terrible job of remembering to get back to their other friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boom, updated exactly one day before my self-imposed deadline. Maybe next time I'll get crazy and update in TWO days less than expected. I'm a WILD CARD, BABY.

 

Once their food went  _ding_  and they’d snatched it off of red trays with hungry hands, Will, Nico, and Reyna didn’t head back to the table outside just yet. Instead, as if by unspoken agreement, they planted down in one of the cracking yellow booth seats and started to eat.

Will watched with fascination as Nico alternated between avoiding eye contact with Reyna and constantly catching her eye. He couldn’t seem to commit to an angle.

“Will,” she said, somehow making just a monosyllabic name sound like a royal decree. “Where are you from?”

“In general, or…?” Will trailed off. When he realized Reyna would just keep staring at him expectantly until he answered, he said, “I was born in Texas, if that’s what you mean.”

“Interesting. What year are you?”

“Going into senior. How about you?”

“I still have a lot of years left in me. Two more, then law school.”

“Oh! Are you going to be a lawyer?” Stupid question. Stupid question, Will.

“Something like that.” She didn’t elaborate.

“Don’t sound so sinister,” Nico said. “She’s just disillusioned with our legal system.”

“Which _is_ sinister.”

“True.”

Will took a bite of his burger (perfectly acceptable, instantly forgettable) and used chewing as an excuse to watch them talk. Will wasn’t sure how to feel around Reyna. Usually when Nico’s friends first met him, he had to go through the sacred trials of trustworthiness to not get murdered. Reyna had a calm energy about her, but also an edge that she carried in the line of her shoulders. It made Will not want to get too comfortable.

Reyna teased Nico for a little while about conveniently being busy whenever she was available to visit, but Nico kept insisting that he really had been busy. Will was tempted to pipe in with certain dates that he was reasonably sure Nico had actually spent in bed the entire day, but his self-preservation instincts kicked in.

“So where are you headed after high school, Will? You're both seniors, so that must be everywhere right now.”

“Not yet,” Nico said, like he couldn’t help himself. “We have a few months.”

“I don’t know yet,” Will replied to Reyna. “I’ve looked at a couple biology programs around, but nothing’s really grabbing me. I might just get my pre-reqs done at a community or something.”

Nico rushed to finish his bite and swallowed. “I haven’t heard about this. Wait, do you not go straight to med school?”

Will stared like, _No, honey._ “No, you get a bachelor’s in biology or something first. I thought you knew that.”

“I did not!” Nico lit up, but more in a stressful mad scientist kind of way. He looked like he had a lot more to say, but he clamped his mouth shut. Will smiled at that excitable gleam in his eyes.

“Anyway, yeah. I don’t know where I want to go for med yet, but I’ve visited Twin and it seems cool.”

Reyna nodded along, but Will noticed the blank expression on Nico’s face and added as an aside, “Twin Serpents. Out East.”

“The one that has all the obnoxious ads?”

Will grimaced. “Yeah. The school isn’t like that, though. It’s actually really cool.”

Nico poked at his ice cream, which was becoming a tell of his.

Will stage-whispered to Reyna, “Watch as the wild Nico retreats into his ice cream at any mention of college. An evolutionary wonder.”

Reyna actually snorted at that, which made Will want to take a picture and hang it proudly on some proverbial childhood refrigerator.

Nico sat up in a huff. “I don’t -” He looked down at his ice cream. “Well, I guess. Maybe.”

“How about you, Nico?” Reyna took a tip from her drink. “Last I heard, you were planning on tunneling underground to commune with the worms for a career.”

“Still the plan.” Nico sat up straight and exhaled. “Reyna. Were you planning on telling me about that hickey, or…?

Reyna tossed a bottle cap straight in Nico’s eye before Will could even process what was happening. She adjusted her neckline, which had slipped, and Will only now noticed a dark circle at the base of her neck. “No.”

A silent face-off. Then Nico shrugged. “Okay.”

“Want a fry?” She offered her plate to them.

Will didn’t know how to process this interaction, but he had been resisting asking for a fry for the last five minutes, so he eagerly nodded and took one. “Oh my god. I wish I’d gotten just these.”

Nico looped his arm around his in a gesture that Will immediately knew was too publicly sweet to be genuine. “Will, I have some excellent news about being an adult, and it’s that you can actually stand up, walk to the counter, and pay for some more fries if you want them.”

Will flipped him off. “I will. And you don’t get any.”

“He doesn’t mean that,” Nico said to Reyna, but with just enough of an edge of desperation in his voice that Will laughed.

He scooted out of the seat and went up to the counter. Katie wasn’t there anymore, which was a bummer, because he’d always liked her. He’d actually had a crush on her in like, fifth grade, which was funny now.

Instead, one of the Stoll brothers was at the register. Will could have semi-confidently said that this one was Connor, but the name tag said Travis, so he should just go fuck himself, he guessed.

He wore a pin-striped uniform and a corny little box hat, unlike Katie’s simple apron, and Will wondered why an establishment would allow such different dress codes.

As Will approached, Possibly-Travis flashed him a smile. “Hey, Will!”

Will’s eyes widened. How did this guy know who he was better than Will knew him? “Uh, hey…” He didn’t say his name, just in case. “Could I get some fries? Please. Thanks."

“Yep yep yep,” Travis/Connor said, already poking away at the buttons on the register with bouncy ease. “Anything else? Any of your friends want anything? Want some free sodas?” He tossed Will some cups without waiting for an answer. “They’re the good opaque ones so my boss can’t tell they’re not water.”

“Oh, uh, thanks?” Will was just glad that he’d caught them and not dropped them in a horrifying and clumsy affair he couldn’t even think about without cringing. “Here.” He handed over a five.

TravisConnor, the hybrid, handed him back his change and went back to dish up the fries. Will stared with narrowed eyes at his back. That was Connor. He was sure of it. Connor was the one who had stuck ketchup packets under the toilet seats in the teacher’s lounge because he’d said he’d seen it in Captain Underpants when he was a kid and had always wanted to do it. Right? Right??

When he returned, Will cursed every god of social interactions and blurted, “I swear to god you’re Connor, right? Or did you just get shorter?”

ConTravis looked at him funny. “Yeah? I’m -” He looked down at his name tag and groaned. “Travis always fucking does this. He thinks it’s funny to watch people get confused.”

Will burst out laughing. “I was right! Validation!”

Connor grinned back. “Good job. Gold star.”

They lingered there for a second, at which time Will remembered he was within arm’s reach of Heaven Fries. “Could I get the, uh -”

“Oh! Sorry.” Connor handed them over. “Have a good one, kay? See you at school.”

Will combed his brain for literally any time that they'd interacted at school, but he didn’t think they had any classes together. Obviously everyone knew the Stolls, but Will wasn’t exactly infamous in that same way. Apparently he had more of an image around school than he’d thought.

Either way, Will made a mental note to look into becoming friends with Connor at some point as he walked back to the table. He liked his energy, calmer than it was when he was with his brother.

When he sat back down, Nico was raising his eyebrows. Reyna sipped on his drink in a _I’m not saying anything_ pose.

Will stared at them. “What? Did I miss something?”

“Wow. Somebody likes you.”

“What?” Will noticed Nico eyeing the counter, where Connor’s back was turned as he cleaned the machines. “What're you talking about?”

Reyna smiled. “I think Nico is pointing out that Connor clearly has a bit of a crush.”

“Fucking - _what?”_ Will whipped his head back to them, then back to the counter. “No way. I barely know him.” How come he was always the last one to know when he was being flirted with? That had just looked like a normal human interaction to him.

“Not what his eyes were saying,” Nico grumbled.

Reyna suppressed laughter. “Don’t worry. It seems you’re just too likable.”

Despite the context, Will was actually super pleased to hear at least a vague indication that Reyna liked him. Winning over this particular friend of Nico’s seemed like it was going to be a challenge round, but she glanced at him with a close-lipped smile and a quiet sparkle in her eye that suggested they were sharing some secret joke at Nico's expense. He liked how important her gaze made him feel.

“Just propose next time,” Nico continued in the background. “Get down on one knee, pop the question, make it a spring wedding so the fucking dandelions will be in bloom.”

Will burst out laughing. “Nico! Are you serious? Come on.”

Nico mumbled something that sounded like “Hrmnhmh,’ and Will didn’t bother to try to decipher it.

Reyna opened her mouth, then closed it. Thought for a moment. Then said, “I was going to wait to talk to Nico in private to ask, but how long have you two been together?”

That seemed to shake Nico out of his storm clouds a bit. They glanced at each other like, _Uhhh._

“September?” Will guessed, checking with Nico. “Or wait, August?”

“September, I think. Junior year started mid-August.”

“Definitely before October.”

“I don’t need specifics,” Reyna interrupted. “I’m just surprised Nico has felt the need to not mention this in any of our calls for the past year. It’s not my business, but.”

Nico went red. “Reyna, I didn’t -”

“You don’t owe me anything. I had just been wondering why you were smiling more. I see it now.”

Now Will was the red one. He looked over at Nico, who barely made eye contact.

“Yeah,” Nico said quietly. He and Reyna exchanged a look with a full conversation in it that Will couldn’t translate. Except for a _talk later_ somewhere in there.

He felt Nico’s hand reach out and gently wrap around his under the table. He looked down and smiled, then back up at Nico. The heat made the hairs near his part frizz a little and he resisted the urge to smooth it down only because his free hand was covered in fry grease. He loved the lighting here, unintentionally dingy windows making the sun stream in hazy, smoky ribbons. He pretended for a second that they were all here the first year it was open, all fifties and hairdos and jackets. But the fifties also sucked, so he ditched the fantasy in favor of kissing Nico’s cheek.

“So.” Will turned back to Reyna. “Why law school? If the system is so broken.”

And Reyna treated them to an in-depth explanation of why in the current constraints provided by the powers that be, she needed to have this degree to help the people she wanted to help and take down the people that needed to be taken down and Will didn’t understand half the jargon she was tossing around, but she spoke with such certainty that he went along for the ride.

So they weaved around, back into senior year and the weather and _why haven’t you two joined any clubs, they look amazing on a transcript._ Will’s fries were gone by the time he and Reyna were done comparing their shitty work supervisors, Nico trying to share equivalent experiences about kids stabbing him in the leg at his summer camp for fencing. Will and Reyna both afforded him little sympathy.

“You’re the one who applied to teach small children to use swords.” Will clucked his tongue, causing Reyna to stifle a laugh.

“I didn’t think they’d be so terrible at it!”

“Guys!”

All of them looked up toward the voice. 

Annabeth and Hazel stood in the doorway. Annabeth crossed her arms and said, “Were you guys going to come back out at some point, or…?”

“Shit, sorry.” Will stood and moved aside to let Nico out of the booth behind him. His legs had red marks on them from the cracking seats. “We got distracted.”

Hazel shrugged. “You probably dodged a bullet. We just had a whole yelling match over the social ramifications of pumpkin spice.”

“It was _not_ a yelling match.” Annabeth turned sharply at Hazel. “It was me explaining that I’m right.”

“With great passion.”

“We can agree on that.”

Now Will really wanted to know what their thoughts were on pumpkin spice, but he was just a wise enough man to know when not to kick a hornet’s nest.

“Either way, we were all gonna go home. It’s way too hot out there.”

“Oh. Okay,” Nico said, looking between Will and Reyna. “You ready?”

Reyna nodded, still with that _to be continued_ look in her eye. Will wondered if he should make some sort of quiet exit, since they so clearly wanted to say something to each other, but they stood along with him and followed the group to the door.

On the way out, Connor waved from behind the counter. “Bye, guys! Try not to melt out there!”

Will wasn’t going to lie. Nico’s glare was the funniest thing he had ever seen.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just enjoy Reyna. That is all.
> 
> Thanks for reading!! I'll say once again that if you kudo, COMMENT, bookmark, do an elaborate interpretive dance about ethical consumption under capitalism, or recommend, I will be eternally grateful to your kindness. I'm pretty sure I'll owe you a life debt. I have yet to read the fine print on that one. (I'm sure it's nothing.)
> 
> See you next chapter!
> 
> twitter: sentimentalscr1  
> tumblr: sentimentalscribe


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *seahawk voice* ADVENTCHA!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In a stunning display of universe-balancing, I updated a few days early last time and a few days late this time. Obviously this was an intentional act of balance and not me having absolutely no time to post even though this chapter has been done for a week. Oops!

 

Later that night, after the streets had gone that sort of light-dark that summers got, they lay at the edge of the street, half-sprawled on the sidewalk and half on the grass. Just close enough for Nico to kick Will’s foot when he said something stupid.

“I wish you could see stars here,” Will mused. “In Texas there were so many.”

“I only see them when we visit my family in the mountains.”

“Not camping?”

“Never been.” Nico refused to look over at Will. “Okay, I could literally draw that face you’re making right now and I’m not even looking at it.”

“Sorry. But never? I go every year at least with my mom. It’s a good time.”

“Mm, yes. Love being devoured by every bug in existence.”

“S’mores. Campfires. Songs.”

“Tuberculosis.”

“Only you could manage to contract TB in a private campsite.”

Nico laughed. They didn’t say anything for a bit, just watching the blank night sky that must have held some sorts of wonders past the pollution.

He couldn’t have said how long they lay out there outside the house, but Nico could barely speak for the fluttering in his chest creeping up his throat. This happened sometimes, these waves of specialness. He knew it didn’t make sense to feel so jittery and nervous with his boyfriend of a year, but Will made everything feel new. Nico couldn’t help that.

Will’s hand rested on the ground between them, open and alone and halfway an invitation.

Nico didn’t take it right away. Instead stared at the night sky. The air was filled with this sweetness, this starkness, this softness, all at once and overlapping over one another in a silent symphony that left him unable to do anything other than listen.

“No one will shut up about the future,” Will murmured.

Nico almost rolled his eyes. “Including you.”

“Yeah.” He was quiet for a second. “Is it too much to ask to just enjoy my last year of youth in peace?”

“Before you graduate and immediately transform into an old man?”

“Shut up. No. Well, maybe.”

Nico shifted, not knowing what to say. He finally went and grabbed his hand. “There’s still a year.”

“Exactly. All that time and we’re expected to spend all of it looking ahead.”

Nico nodded. The thought of it all terrified him too much to even verbalize more than he already had.

“I don’t know,” Will said, gazing up. “I just don’t know if I’ll ever get it. You know? It’s like, we’re all living in these meat suits and waking up every day and pouring bowls of cereal and…” He turned his head to Nico, hair falling in his eyes. “And meanwhile there’s this whole world out there with different cultures and sights and sounds and canyons and rivers and sunsets and like, what am I doing? Spending the precious existence I was lucky enough to be born into in AP classes and trying to avoid my mom’s new boyfriend?”

Nico didn’t know what to say. “Yeah,” he tried, trying not to stare. It was kind of hard when they were less than a foot apart with nothing to look at besides each other and the not-stars.

“Life is full of so much _nothing,_ you know? Just bullshit _,_ and we’re all stuck dealing with it instead of dropping everything to go see the Colosseum or something. That thing is older than Jesus and it exists in the actual world and the fact that I’m not right there seeing it right now is a crime of existence.”

“I didn’t know you wanted to go to Rome.” Nico felt kind of out of his depth.

“I’d love to.” A spark flashed in Will’s eyes. “We should do it. Let’s go to Rome and camp out in the Colosseum at night and hide from the security guards using Home-Alone-style trickery and clever ruses.”

“Don’t you have to volunteer at the hospital in the morning?”

“Right.” Will narrowed his eyes and looked to the side. “That does throw a wrench in the plan.”

Nico couldn’t help but smile. “I know Italian. That could help.”

“Yet you refuse to speak it in front of me, so it seems we’re at an impasse.”

That was true. It didn’t feel right to whip out his mother’s language as a party trick, so away it stayed. “I’ll make sure to pick us up a ticket next time I’m out.”

“Not even Rome specifically. I just want to go. See the world. Eat food so spicy my nose runs. Jump off a waterfall and fall in love with humanity and get my heart broken, you know?”

Nico's brow furrowed. “Why would you want to have your heart broken?”

“Shut up, I’m being poetic.” Will laughed and got to his feet. He stretched once he stood up, hitching his shirt up just a bit above his waistband. Nico pretended not to be distracted.

Will offered a hand down. “Come on.”

Nico let Will hoist him up, the warmth of his hand lingering long after they let go. His heart was kind of pounding for absolutely no sane reason. “Where are you going?”

Will crossed to the street and sat down in the middle of it.

“Will! What are you doing?”

“I don’t know. Is this cool? Do I look edgy and hip?”

“You look like you’re going to get hit by a truck with the world’s lamest story as to why.”

Will tried not to smile, but it didn’t work. He closed his eyes and settled into a meditation stance, holding his forefingers and thumbs together. “Ommm. See how deep I am? Come sit with me.”

Nico apparently couldn’t refuse anything that came out of that sunshine beam of a boy, because he followed suit and sat across from him, crossing his legs to mirror their positions. He sat facing the main road, though, so he could see if any cars were coming.

He huffed. “Why, exactly, are we doing this?”

“Because life is short and also unimaginably long and my mom’s bedroom light is off, so we can do whatever we want.”

Nico checked over his shoulder. Will was right. The faded one-story had gone completely dark other than the porch light attracting moths. “Huh. Alright. Want to rob a bank?”

“Now you’re getting it!” Will opened his eyes and grinned. He lay down on the asphalt. “We could plant a garden. What flowers do you want?’

Nico hesitantly followed suit, his back flat against the ground and their heads upside down next to each other. He had to keep telling himself that this was a tucked-away suburban street in the middle of the night and no cars would be coming any time soon. “I don’t know what they’re called, but I like the fluffy purple ones.”

“Waiter!” Will raised his hand and snapped. “The fluffiest purple flowers imaginable, please! Make it snappy.”

Nico tried not to laugh. “What’s gotten into you?”

“Existence, man!” He sat up abruptly. “Life! We’re all the products of meiosis and all of it ends six feet underground! Let’s _do_ something with it!”

Nico stayed lying down, but angled his head to see Will. “Well -” He must have been about to say something, but he temporarily forgot how to speak. From down here, Will’s head was haloed by the moonlight, casting a serene glow around him on this deserted street despite the manic glint in his eyes. Nico’s chest ached at the sight. He wanted to reach out and hold that face in his hands. He could feel the warmth from here despite a cool ribbon of a breeze floating through the air.

Will’s beautiful expression faltered for just a second. “What?”

“Oh.” Nico realized he probably looked pretty out of it. “Nothing.”

Will narrowed his eyes, but smiled and let it go. “So, you with me? Want to go on an adventure?”

Nico sat up to match him. “What, right now?”

“Right now. Let’s go somewhere. Have a picnic on the train tracks or find a roof somewhere to watch from. Are there any snack places open?”

“Seriously? It’s the middle of the night.”

“And we’re in the middle of our one and only existence.”

Nico stared at him. Blond curls and a daring grin clouded his senses and he couldn’t stop himself from laughing. “Alright. Fuck it! Let’s break into a gas station and give the money to the homeless!”

“Hell yeah!” Will beamed and burst to his feet, grabbing Nico’s hands and pulling him up, too. “You’re amazing.”

Nico couldn’t breathe. Will hadn’t dropped his hands. Nico didn’t know why he didn’t kiss him right there. “Thanks. Uh, yeah.”

The air stilled. Nico couldn’t move with Will looking at him like that, like he was some fascinating rarity he was trying to memorize. He felt watched in an intensely personal way, Will’s gaze palpable on his skin.

Their hands were still joined. Nico glanced down at them and back up again. “Uh, Will?”

“Nico, can I kiss you?”

Nico pretended his heart wasn’t pounding. “You know you don’t have to ask anymore.”

“Is that a yes?”

Screw it. Nico kissed him first.

Will made a startled but happy noise, pulling him closer. They almost tripped on a rock on the street, but managed to stumble back their balance, albeit with some exasperated giggling.

Nico pulled away. “Okay, enough. We’re not making out in the middle of the road.”

“But aren’t we?” Will waggled his eyebrows.

Nico pushed him with a snort. “I’m not giving your neighbors a show.”

“But aren’t you?”

“You’re insufferable.”

“You’re magical.”

Nico narrowed his eyes. “You’re supposed to say that I’m like, an annoying cockroach or something.”

“Well, you’re not. And right now I find it important to note that you are magical and amazing and that I’m madly in love with you.”

Nico tried not to combust. “Okay, Romeo.”

“Existence is futile and fleeting and every moment that passes us by is another one that we’ll never get to experience again, but I have to say I’m glad I just spent the last minute or so kissing you.”

Nico’s mouth didn’t know how to work, so he just stared at Will with what was probably a pathetically sappy look in his eyes. Will looked so impossibly earnest, even with blue irises lost to gray in the darkness. “Me, too.”

“Also, just in the interest of not going to jail, we should probably steer away from any actual crime tonight. How about we just get every flavor of slushie in a row and throw a feast?”

Nico tried not to smile. “I’ll grab the keys.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! As always, if you kudo, comment (!!), bookmark, venmo me twelve million dollars, or rec, I will love you for all of eternity.
> 
> (And because I don't know if I say it enough: I really, truly appreciate you reading. Especially on just my fun little offshoot fic here where I'm just having fun as a writer, it means a lot that anybody still wants to tune in. So thank you again, so much!!)
> 
> twitter: sentimentalscr1  
> tumblr: sentimentalscribe


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gas station slushies are involved. I cannot describe the amount of feral raccoon energy contained in this chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has come to my attention that some non-Americans will have no idea what the fuck I'm talking about but trust me, there are sugary icy slush drinks available in gas stations everywhere here and you can mix and match flavors. This encourages free will and creativity, which is a bad idea in this case. Also, idk if blue raspberry is just American but it's just like artificial raspberry but blue???? All I know is I really want a slushie now. Hope that helps lol!

 

Will couldn’t keep his eyes off the way the streetlights slid past Nico’s face as they drove. The night sky had finally settled into a true dark and Will didn’t care one bit if there weren’t any stars out. He reached out and ran a thumb over that freckle on Nico’s jaw he loved.

Nico looked over at him. A blush always right under the surface, ready to emerge at the slightest brush. Will found it consistently adorable.

“Where are we going again?” Nico asked.

“Thought you were the one deciding. Disneyland? Gas station?”

“Gas station, if those are the options.”

“Not the ones around here. Let’s drive out.”

Nico still had that look about him he’d had all night, amused yet wary, and Will couldn’t even tell how he felt himself. He wanted to stand on top of the car and yell until the suburban trees shook. He wanted to burst into a saloon and get matching tattoos. He wanted to smash a crate of bottles against the nearest building. He wanted to see and hear blinding light, bright and crashing like cymbals in his eyes.

He brought his hand away from Nico’s face when he didn’t respond. “Can you roll down your window?”

Nico glanced over at him, but obliged.

Will did the same and whooped loudly. He took Nico’s free hand without thinking and held their joined hands up as high as the car roof would allow. 

How strange, he thought, watching their hands. The workings of their fingers, the way they fit around one another, how it meant something in whatever silent, desperate language they spoke.

Nico laughed in that muted way of his. “How far are we driving?”

“Until there are no more buildings we recognize.”

“I can do that.” Nico snuck one more glance away from the road. Will’s restless insides melted a bit more into a puddle.

“It’s really stupid that you’re driving,” Will said.

“You don’t have a license.”

“No, I mean because I really want to kiss you but I also really like not crashing into a ditch.”

“Oh.” After a second, Nico screeched to a halt in the middle of the road and kissed Will. Will was so surprised he laughed into it, but still managed to drink in the press of Nico’s lips on his, the hand at the corner of his jaw.

Then Nico pulled away and shifted back into drive. “Could’ve just said something,” he said, failing to look blase.

Will was already laughing. “Don't pretend that wasn't terrifying for you -”

“It’s an empty road! I was trying to be fun!”

“Yes, your specialty.”

“Dork.”

“Idiot.”

They drove in quiet except for the radio for a bit, an‘80s-inspired something that Nico had pulled from his massive CD collection. Generic towns phased in and out, getting more and less rural depending on where Nico felt like turning next, and Will held his hand out the window and tried to breathe in the night air so deeply that it became part of him.

“How about this?” Nico’s voice broke Will out of his trance.

“Huh?’

Up ahead to their right, an off-brand gas station/mini mart with a neon purple sign waited. “Perfect,” Will said, sitting up in his seat.

Nico pulled into the lot and, after a quick check that they hadn’t just arrived directly at a murderer’s den, they went inside. Will liked the way the display signs shone fuzzy through the dark.

“Oh my god. Nico, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

For once, Nico’s eyes were just as wide. “I’m seeing.”

Will crossed to a self-serve slushie machine with what looked like at least twenty flavor options and a large sign that sang the gospel of  _ Free Refills.  _ “Whoever makes the worst combo wins?”

“Way ahead of you.” Nico had already grabbed the most monstrously huge cups available and he tossed one at Will. “Let’s see. Coconut-Coke-Fruit Punch, perhaps?”

“Fuck, that’s good.” Will didn’t hop into the competition as quickly as he should have. Now that he was actually here, out and about in this uncanny valley of a gas station, he found his thoughts racing mellower. Now, most of them were about Nico and how the blasting fluorescent lights really worked for him, which should have been against the rules. He stood in a black tee and actual shorts with an old flannel Will had lent him around his waist, and Will thanked his lucky stars for what felt like the thousandth time.

He couldn’t focus on that at the moment, though, as there was a pressing slushie competition to attend to.

Nico seemed pretty satisfied with his first selections, and he’d added Lime when Will was wasting time staring. Amateur move, Will.

Will quickly filled up with a horrendous-looking combo of Strawberry, Coke, Orange Crush. Grape Crush, and something called “Gatorade Surprise” that he was shocked Nico hadn’t used himself.

He topped his off with a straw. “Alright. We pay and then the winner gets the spoils.”

“What are the spoils?”

“Uh.” Will hadn’t thought that far. He had nothing to bet. “A kiss?”

“Boring. I want eternal bragging rights.”

Will laughed. “You can have that, too.”

“I like how we’re already talking like I won.”

Will ignored him. “Oh!” He snapped like  _ aha.  _ “Loser has to actually drink the whole winning slushie. The worst-tasting one.”

Nico grinned a wicked grin. “Prepare to hurl on a street corner.”

“Aww, I love it when you talk sweet.”

They marched to the front counter, which was devoid of life like the rest of the store.

“Uh.” Will looked around for a bell or something. “Did we actually check if this place was open before we filled up?”

“It’s obviously open. Lights are on and everything.” Nico waved an arm around as if that would help. Then to the counter again: “Hello?”

“Look, a cigarette.” Will pointed to a butt on the register, right in front of an employee step stool.”Someone was here recently.”

“Detective Will is on the case.” Nico stamped the last of the sparks with his leather wallet. “And Firefighter Nico, apparently.”

Will furrowed his brow. “There’s an employee door - did they leave?”

“It  _ is _ the middle of the night. Maybe they took a break since no one comes in here.”

“Who do we pay, then?”

“Can we just leave money on the counter?”

“I can write a note.”

Nico closed his eyes. “I swear, if we get arrested for these fucking nightmare slushies -”

“Look, okay, the free refill ones are $3.14. What’s the tax on that?”

”Ten. No, twenty percent. Wait, that’s restaurants.”

“Sales tax is eight percent, I thought?”

“But food products don’t take tax.”

“Does this count as food?”

“We’re eating it, aren’t we?”

“But at what cost?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out, literally!”

Will clutched his head. “We’re going to jail for Pina Colada/Grape.”

“To be fair, we should go to jail for that anyway.”

Will hummed a  _ true, true.  _

Nico took a deep breath. “Okay. Okay, I’m just going to leave a twenty dollar bill on the counter.”

“Will that cover tax?”

“Will that -” Nico’s eye about bugged out of his head. “Yes! Our things were like six dollars! Unless tax is over fourteen fucking dollars!”

“Just do it!” Will felt the urge to cover his eyes. “Wait, I’ll write a note.”

“I swear to  -”

Will grabbed a strip of receipt tape and a pen from the PIN machine and scribbled,  _ Hello, we did not steal. Here is money. :) _

“That is exactly what someone who stole would write!”

“But we’re leaving money!”

“Where are the security cameras?” Nico looked around and Will joined. “There.” Nico waved to the camera, held up his slushie (hissing to Will to do the same) and waved the twenty in the air. He exaggeratedly set down the money on the counter in a wide arc and Will attempted to help with the theatrical production via jazz hands.

“Okay,” Nico said. “We should be good, I think.”

“I’m leaving that note.”

Nico sighed, slapping a hand to his face but accidentally whacking himself in the browbone with his skull ring. He winced. “Fine. Can we just get out of here?”

“Until we come back for refills, of course.”

“Oh my god.”

In the wake of that disaster, they left the building in somber silence, mourning the loss of whatever shred of a brain cell they might have dreamed they once shared. 

Back outside, faint smell of gasoline in the air, Will looked down at their drinks. “Woah. Nico. We still haven’t determined a winner.”

“Tonight, humanity has all lost, a million times over.”

“Bet you’re just scared I’ll win.”

“With your combo? Please.”

They looked down in fear at their drinks. Will gulped. “Who first?”

“Yours. What flavors did you end up with?”

“I don’t even remember.” He cringed. “Was this a bad idea?”

“You’re the one who wanted to get his heart broken. Here, let this break it.”

Will shivered. It was like the ice had been dumped down his back. “Okay. Okay, I’m doing it. I’m taking a sip. We can do this.”

Nico waited, gesturing expectantly.

The freezing cup stung Will’s hand. “Can you go first?”

“I drive you to a gas station in the middle of nowhere so you can live on the edge and you won’t drink a  _ slushie -” _

“Okay, fine, I’m doing it!” Will clutched his eyes shut and took a giant sip.

Immediately he had to stop from spitting it out. “NO,” was all he could process.

“My turn.” Nico grabbed it from him and took a sip. He didn’t react. “Hm. Disgusting.”

Will gaped at him, reduced to an old beggar hunched at the side of a poisoned well. “Is that all? That was battery acid. The strawberry and the imitation Gatorade had bad sex and laid eggs inside my tongue.”

“Yeah, it was gross. Alright, time for mine.”

“Give me a second to recover, you monster.” Will opened and closed his mouth, attempting to lip-smack away the flavor.

“If you can’t handle that, there’s no way you can handle mine.”

Will glared. “Fine. What’re you working with?”

Nico’s devilish grin made Will want to jump in the dumpsters for safety. “Candy Cane. Lime. Something called Full Throttle Frozen Fury. Root Beer. Pina Colada. Last but not least, one called Frawg that was green. I have no idea.”

Nico held the drink out with the worst possible smile. “Care for a sip?”

Will stared at the altogether brown ice sludge, then back up at Satan’s child. “I feel the need to marry you just so I can divorce you for this.”

“Chug, chug, chug,” Nico whispered with a terrifying glint in his eye.

Will snatched the cup and gulped it before he could stop himself.

He actually spat it out onto the concrete. Nico’s laughter was basically screams at this point.

 “We’ve made a terrible mistake,” Will yelled, and he squinted at the cup, the sinful being, trying to cough up ice shards that stuck in his throat. “I think it started congealing.”

“One of the machines did say Out of Order, yes.”

“Nico,  _ why.” _

“Relax, I have to try it, too.” Nico took it for himself and sipped.

Okay, Will admitted it. There was a silver lining to this series of poor decisions, because watching Nico try and keep a straight face after  _ that  _ was a goddamn cinematic experience. There was a story arc, a rising action and climax, that ended with Nico’s face red and him unsubtly choking on his own tongue.

“Will -  _ hchm  _ \- Will, I'm not a coward but I do think we should call poison control on that Frawg flavor -”

Now Will was the one laughing. “Pay! Pay for your crimes!”

Nico clutched his eyes shut so hard he must have been seeing spots. “That thing is not medically sound.”

“Appealing to my doctor side will not free you from this.”

“I know, I know. God, why is it gooey?” Nico coughed one more time. “Okay, I know we said the loser would have to drink the worse one, but I like my boyfriend alive and I’ll let you off the hook in an act of mercy.”

“I wouldn’t have drank that whole thing with a gun to my head.” Will put a hand on his shoulder, less of a nice gesture and more of a soldiers-in-arms bracing. “Should we get normal ones instead? We did get unlimited refills.”

Nico nodded and chucked his slushie in a nearby garbage can in response and wordlessly walked back in the building.

Will was going to crack trying not to laugh. “Nico.”

“What?” Nico stopped at the door.

“We have to use the same cups. That’s how refills work.”

Nico looked straight ahead into the empty gas station, eyes deadened as if wishing for a kinder universe. He slowly turned around and picked his cup out of the garbage. “We live a cursed existence, Will. And we will never be free of it.”

“Yeah.” Will led the way into the building. “You wanna get like, Blue Raspberry or something?”

“Sure.”

They emptied the original cups, filled up with normal human flavors, and grabbed some potato chips for the road from the still-empty store. Nico threw another ten dollars on the counter to compensate.

They stalled in the fluorescents for a moment. Will sipped his blessedly standard Blue Raspberry to wash the bad taste out of his mouth. “Where to?”

“You tell me.” Nico’s mouth was red from the cherry flavoring in his new drink, turning him into an adorable sugar vampire. “This is your existential crisis, not mine.”

“It’s a little bit yours, too, don’t lie.” Will thought for a second, stirring his slushie, before remembering something. “There was a maintenance ladder out there to the roof.”

Nico sighed. “Are we eating all this on the roof?”

“We’re one hundred percent eating these on the roof.”

Nico (still unfairly good-looking in gas station lighting) shrugged and took another sip. “We’ve already cheated death tonight. Why not?”

Will laughed and shrugged along with him. “Do you have the Frawg flavor out of your mouth yet?”

“Yeah, wh -”

“Good.” Will kissed him, taking special delight in how Nico almost tripped backwards into a candy display in surprise.

Nico kissed back after a second, then pulled away. “Come on, we’ve built up such a relationship with the security camera person. Now they’ll think we’re just weird horny teens.”

“Oh my god.” Will didn’t know whether to kiss him again or steal the car and drive off without him. “We  _ are  _ weird horny teens.”

“They can’t know that.”

“Nico, you -” Will batted in his direction like he was a lazy fly and snorted at Nico’s indignant response. “Whatever. We have a roof to climb.”

“Apparently we do. Because we’re having a crisis.”

“Because we’re having a crisis!” Will gleefully yanked him toward the door.

They waved to the security cameras again on the way out. Will hoped whoever watched the tapes was having a spectacular night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot BELIEVE this gas station trip was a whole chapter. This was NOT THE PLAN. I had a blast, though, so why not. Thank you for reading!! I appreciate so hard that you want to spend time and energy reading my joyful ramblings that I do for fun, like every now and then it hits me how wild that is. So thank you!
> 
> If you kudo/comment/bookmark/rec/whatever cool kids do I'll love you forever. Particularly the commenting, because I am a cursed spirit who has been trapped inside an ancient tomb of enchantment and I would enjoy some company other than the evil king who comes to demand prophecies of me. It gets taxing. 
> 
> See you next chapter!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a lot of aesthetic happening here but also a lot of chaotic gay energy, so take what you will.

 

“You didn’t check if the ladder was climbable?”

“I didn’t think there was an alternative! I mean, it looks climbable, if it didn’t start six feet off the ground.”

Outside, in the fucking dark and the cold at an abandoned gas station, at who knows how late o’ clock, Nico resisted the urge to strangle the optimistic bundle of blond across from him. “Do you suggest we learn the art of parkour?”

“That’s not actually a terrible idea…”

Nico didn’t like how Will started scanning for nearby objects as if looking for possible jumping blocks. “No. It’s a very terrible idea. Let’s just find somewhere else suitably exciting to eat these slushies.”

“No!” Will looked more betrayed than he had when Nico had said he’d never played Minecraft. “We committed to this roof. If we can’t achieve this roof, how will achieve anything in our entire adult lives?”

Nico stared at him. “Wow.”

“I know. I’m having a crisis. Help me get on the roof.”

If Nico were a different person, he would have offered a hug. Instead, he smiled a bit in spite of himself and pointed at a loose tire on the ground nearby. “Fine. Fetch.”

“Yes. Par-kour, par-kour,” Will chanted to himself. He ran off to grab the tire and as he pulled it over, nearly tripping over himself multiple times trying to get it up over a curb, Nico had a common mental conversation with himself that usually summed up to about:  _ This one? This is the one? / Yeah. This one. _

Will let the tire drop with a heave at the base of the ladder. “Could’ve helped me,” he grumbled.

Nico shrugged and pulled him closer by the arm. Will was way too exerted from pulling a tire ten feet, but it made him red and it was cute and Nico had the ability to kiss him, so he did.

Will started to pull away as if he’d been expecting a peck, but Nico pulled him back in, muffled laughing at Will almost tripping over his feet again. Will got the message and breathed deeply through his nose, moving in to Nico’s body space and curling his hand around the back of his neck. Nico moved into it more, smiling just enough to still be able to kiss Will again without breaking, and savored the warm breath on his lips in the cold night as he pulled away.

“Any occasion?” Will asked.

Nico shrugged.

Will let their foreheads rest together. “I really love you, you know.”

Nico fluttered still, after all this time. He hummed agreement and gave him another short kiss.

Will smiled, then turned back to the ladder. “Creative way of distracting me from our new master mission.”

“Ugghhh.” Nico couldn’t even be too annoyed, his heart beating fast enough to warm him up in the chill.

“I think if we stand on the tire, then -” Will did that really quick and visibly realized that: “No, that’s still too low. Okay, uh…”

“I’m not standing on your shoulders.”

“We’re mind readers. It’s like we’re one. We are one being.”

“I refuse.”

“I’ll stand on yours, then, and pull you up. Perfect.”

Nico blinked at him. “I’m dating a side character in a zany ‘90s comedy.”

Will ignored that. “C’mon, stand up here.”

Nico looked at him for a long moment, felt the familiar sensation of all the stages of grief washing over him, and joined him on the tire.

Will, now eye level, beamed at him. “Do you feel tall?”

“You’re so, so lucky you’re cute, Solace.” Nico looked up at the ladder rungs above them. “Let’s do this before I think rationally.”

“That’s the spirit!”

Nico grunted as Will fucking leapt onto his back, climbing his way ungracefully up his shoulders so his knee was sticking right in Nico’s neck and - “Fucking OW!”

“Thank you for your sacrifice!” Will found his balance up there, or at least his sneakers found purchase on Nico’s shoulders pretty equally. “I can reach from here, this is perfect.”

Suddenly, Nico had the feeling that he shouldn’t say whatever he was going to say next. He did not realize this in time. “Do you have the slushies?”

A terrifying silence. “...Fuck.”

“Oh, god. They’re on the ground. I see them now.”

Will deliberated for a moment, still much too heavy to be enjoying an extended stay on Nico’s goddamn collarbones, and whispered, “We have to go back.”

“Just do something, I’m falling over!”

Will hopped down onto the tire, then to the ground in a move much more coordinated than expected. 

“I have no idea how I did that.” Will said. “It was very scary.” He grabbed the slushies and stared up again at the roof. “Huh.”

“Huh.” Nico looked up with him. “You’re getting on my shoulders, climbing the ladder, and pulling me up with two slushies in your hands, all while I’m standing on a tire?”

“With love, anything is possible.”

“Love is going to snap our necks.”

“A small price to pay. Here, hold one.” Will thrust one of the cups in Nico’s hand. “And... action!”

“One day I’m going to have to explain all of this to my -” Nico winced as Will jumped on his back again. “- chiropractor.”

“Ladder acquired. Slushie placed on roof.”

“Boyfriend gone insane.”

“Here, hand up yours and I can put it up here, too.”

“I’m using my free hand to keep you from dying!” Nico clutched Will’s ankle at his shoulder to reinforce this.

“I’m fine. Just hand it up.”

Nico rasied the slushie into the air without being able to see where it would be taken, a holy communion of idiotic offerings. Will took it. Nico lost another brain cell to the slushie wars.

“Okay, I’m gonna climb and pull you up now, alright?”

Nico had barely made a noise of assent before the weight left his shoulders and he felt a yank on his arm.

He yowled like a black cat on Halloween. “God! Elbow! Dislocate! Aren’t you a doctor?”

“I would be able to tell if you dislocated your elbow. I just took a course on dislocations.” He moved to try again. “It was actually super interesting, there’s this whole thing with the way the bones fit together and -”

“Just help me up.”

Will shut up and did so. Blessedly.

After some precarious fumbling at mild heights, they somehow both made it to the roof of the gas station. They fell onto their butts on the not-as-grimy-as-one-would-expect surface.

Will’s breath heaved. “Mission accomplished.”

“And it only took us twelve hours,” Nico grumbled.

Will elbowed him, but quickly dropped it. “Woah. Look.”

Nico dusted himself off for imaginary dirt, then stopped to looked up out at the view. “Woah.”

From not that much of an elevation change, somehow the landscape was something different. New. As the night grew even darker, the edges of trees blanketing this makeshift middle-of-nowhere shone in whatever moonlight they could scrounge. The road before them stretched in either direction, empty save for Nico’s car begging to be stolen parked at the edge of a small ditch.

Will pointed. “I didn’t know there was a town over there.”

Nico followed his line of sight. Sure enough, a small cluster of old buildings only distinguishable by intermittent illuminated signs stood in the distance. Nestled behind all the trees in summer fullness, they would have missed it driving past.

Will sat back, somehow getting comfortable up there on their death trap building. Nico would always be in awe of how he could manage to look at home anywhere, no matter how much that place didn’t want him there. 

Will’s easy smile over at him made him feel like he should look like he was relaxed, too. Not the same thing as relaxing, but somewhere along the continuum. He tried to mimic the body language and also lean back on one arm, but he just felt wobbly.

“Can you pass the blue raspberry?”

Nico made a face. “That one’s mine.”

“What? I thought this was a timeshare situation. That’s why we got different flavors.”

Nico considered with great suspicion. “That means I get some of yours?”

“Slushie communism, baby. Everything is everybody’s.”

Nico handed both of them over, scooting closer to Will. “Have fun with those. I’m already freezing.”

“Oh nooo, you’re just going to have to come sit with me and share my jacket, what a bummer.”

“Also this flannel around my waist. Guess I can wear that.”

Will made that over-the-top sad face that was so pitiful Nico couldn’t say no. He scowled as much as he could muster with a smile creeping up his face and moved over so they were hip-to-hip, feet dangling over the side of the building. (He did also put his own flannel on, because it was seriously too cold to be doing this.) Their sneakers made giant, vague shadows on the ground where they blocked the neon sign, a massive shadow puppet theater of their own on the gravel parking lot.

The purple hue of the sign soaked into everything, a smokiness in the clear air that made Will’s hair electric. A soft electric, coursing currents buzzing around him like a modern halo.

Nico didn’t think to say anything, content to watch and appreciate and love.

Will took a big sip, smiled, and said, “Nico, this fucking rules.”

Nico snorted. He took in their surroundings and shrugged. “Not where I thought I’d be an hour ago, but sure.”

“You see? Exactly!” Will rested his chin on Nico’s shoulder, then apparently decided against it and looked Nico in the eye. “This is what it’s about. Just doing things and living and sitting on roofs with slushies and my boyfriend who is very warm and -”

“And avoiding your SAT prep tomorrow?”

“Yes. Very much so.”

Nico looked out at the tree outlines in the distance, letting his head fall together with Will’s so they held each other up. Pressing his temples against someone else’s felt so intimate in a way he couldn’t explain - maybe it was the way he could feel their bones move with each movement or word. 

After a moment huddled there under one jacket, breathing syncing in some moments, Nico blurted, “I’m afraid.”

Will turned to him, as much as he could when they were already so close. “Why?”

Nico looked out at where the stars would have been. Too much light. “It’s just everything. All at once. They’re leaving, we’re leaving.” He stopped there, waiting for Will to jump in and save him from having to finish.

He didn’t. Nico didn’t finish anyway.  _ You’re leaving. _

“We’re not going anywhere,” Will said after a long quiet. “We’re up on a roof freezing our asses off and I imagine we will be here for quite some time tonight. Therefore, we are not leaving, but in fact staying. Right here.” He hugged Nico around the waist.

“You know what I mean.”

“Not tonight.” He pulled the jacket they shared further around Nico’s shoulders, to the point where he was basically just giving it to him to wear. Will still only had a t-shirt, with goosebumps from the night winds raised on his arms. A summer camp schoolboy out of his element.

The simple act of subtle generosity was more than Nico could handle on whatever this night had been. It was one thing to love - it was another to be loved in return. And it was another altogether for that love to be so consistent he could miss it if he didn’t pay attention.

Will’s hair in the wind blew in rippling waves. He must have been freezing, even with his insistently sunny blood. The thought somehow translated to Nico smiling so hard he felt something like a tear in the back of his eye.

“You’re my best friend,” Nico said suddenly. He turned his gaze out at the city for a second before turning back to Will. Those beautiful freckles. “I… I don’t know. I just realized that.”

Will smiled, kind. “Of course,” he said, voice soft with a gleam in his eye. 

Nico either forgot about words for a second or just decided they weren’t worth his time. “Yeah,” he said when nothing else came, and before he could think, he was kissing Will.

Will met him without a thought, brushing a hand over Nico’s cheek as he pressed into the kiss. Nico pushed in, forcing Will to turn so they wouldn’t fall off the side of the building, and he made himself feel exactly how warm and solid and real and  _ here  _ Will was, not gone yet, not for a while. It was so much easier to be in the moment when the moment had its hand running up the side of his shirt.

Nico was so drugged up on either the slushies or the neon or the heights or cold or all of it that he wanted to get a lot more into things than the situation allowed, but he still pressed his luck with kissing Will a lot harder than he usually would while on a practically abandoned gas station roof. Which, to be fair, was not a situation he often accounted for.

Will was actually the one who slowly started to ramp it down, until they slowed enough to end on a long, purposeful kiss they could pull away from without too much suffering.

Nico’s hand was hooked around Will’s neck - he wasn’t sure when that had happened, but he took advantage of it to press their foreheads together.

They breathed together for a while, the only sound in the landscape being the neon hum of the sign and some distant cars. Then Nico squeezed Will’s hand, and Will said, “Me too.”

Nico liked being able to start a conversation with his hands and end it with words. He liked having someone who could translate.

Will laughed out of nowhere. “It’s funny. I still feel like I don’t have any idea what I’m doing.”

Nico moved away enough to properly look at him. He quirked an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“With anything. You. School. Hospital stuff. You’d think I could just study enough and figure it out.”

Nico studied Will, the way his eyes were brighter than the summer sky they would wake up to. He looked like he was casually venting more than anything now. 

So Nico didn’t take him too seriously. “That sucks. I personally have always known what I’m doing, clearly.”

Now Will was really laughing. “Mm, yes. Definitely.”

“So it sounds like that’s a problem you’re going to have to figure out for yourself. Because I know everything already.”

“Of course.” Will turned out to the view again and slung an arm over Nico’s shoulders. He made a wild cheers gesture with his other arm. “To not knowing what the fuck we’re doing!”

“Hear, hear.” Nico toasted with his styrofoam cup. “And to these slushie masterpieces.”

“Fuck, yeah. They’re delicious.” Will tapped their cups together and tossed back a brain freeze’s worth. Between the night air, the ice on his tongue, and Nico’s freezing hand in his, he probably should have been a shivering wreck, but Nico knew he’d always run warm. 

For once, Nico could guess what that felt like. In that moment, the wind on his bare skin felt exhilarating, crystalline, awake.

“Let’s never go back,” Nico said.

Will smiled. “Told you it was your crisis, too.”

”Shut up. Couples’ existential bonding: It’s the new thing.”

Will laughed. “Alright. It’s decided. We’re never going back.” His stomach growled. “Until we get hungry.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “The devotion. It’s staggering.”

Will pretended to push him off the building. Nico flipped him off. Will pretended to push him off the building again.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They spent... 1.2k...... climbing a ladder.......... these boys I fucking SWEAR
> 
> Thank you for reading! If you know me, you know I yearn for comments/kudos/bookmarks and whatnot like a great wine connoisseur yearns for the perfect Merlot to complete them, so if you're enjoying, please feel free to talk to me and yell about things!! I love it with all of my heart. See y'all next update :)
> 
> twitter: sentimentalscr1  
> tumblr: sentimentalscribe


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry, did someone order Soft with a side of Soft? Because boy, do I have something SOFT!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone wants to know what I was listening to on repeat writing this chapter, it was "A Thief Without a Home" from The Penumbra Podcast, which I would link here but I worry ao3 won't like me linking to a purchasable song. If you want this chapter but in song form, I highly recommend a google and a listen, it's so beautiful!

Will woke early the next morning to honey sunlight filtering through the curtains and Nico’s hair spread on the pillow beside him.

Last night rang in his mind, neons and cold night and blue raspberry flavor sticky on his tongue. He and Nico had figured that it would be more of an ordeal than it was worth to get Nico back into his room that late undetected, so Nico just stayed over.

He didn’t get up, not right away. He stayed under the covers, though they’d kicked half the sheets off in the mugginess of summer night. His own breathing, Nico’s breathing, were quiet but spotlighted in the stillness. Nico’s back rose and fell gently as he sprawled on his stomach in a position that couldn’t have been comfortable, but was all the more endearing for it. His knees slightly curled in on him in a half-fetal position, facing Will but still asleep.

Will smiled. He let himself unabashedly watch Nico, the way his eyelashes fluttered from dreams, the sunlight mingling with his hair and skin like old friends, the way his hair always made a halo when he lay down.

Will didn’t have plans of moving any time soon, utterly content to stay here and watch the peaceful breaths of someone he loved. He swirled the moment in a wine glass to savor for who-knows-how-long, a balloon expanding pleasantly in his chest. 

However, he was used to eating early and hunger could only be fended off so long. And the bathroom. Having human needs was a sin against the universe when he was so cozy and Nico was just lying there looking like a daydream within reaching distance.

He rose, careful not to move the bed and wake Nico, before remembering that this boy once slept through an actual pep rally just fine. Still, he tiptoed in his socks until he closed his room’s door gently behind him.

He smiled to himself as he crossed the quiet hall and fixed himself cereal.

He had a  _ boy  _ in his room.

It shouldn’t have felt so amusing and rebellious, not when his mom had all but given Nico the spare key to come over whenever after hearing about his home life. Not to mention she was spending the night at her boyfriend’s house again, which was a whole other topic. But the knowledge that his bedroom door contained another person behind it, one who would greet him with a groggy morning kiss when he woke…

It was nice. 

Will brewed coffee, saving the extra for Nico later, letting his hands move through the familiar ritual along with the faint song of sunrise birds. He sat and enjoyed the view of the sun rising through his glass back door.

The sky brightened enough to let the world know it was day and Will found it just as beautiful as he did every single morning before it. More, maybe, but that might have been due to his own persistent half-smile as he slowly sipped his coffee.

Footsteps from the hall. Will turned, expecting his mom somehow and already thinking of rational reasons why Nico would have had to spend the night, but Nico stood at the edge of the kitchen.

His hair was a wreck and he stretched and yawned hugely at the same time, which should have been ridiculous but somehow really, really worked. Maybe it was the way it made his shirt from yesterday hike up. Maybe it was the way Nico was wearing one of Will’s blankets over his shoulders like a shawl, claiming Will’s stuff for his own.

Nico barely reached the end of the carpet before he saw Will and stopped. He breathed deeply, dead-eyed, and said, “It is  _ five.  _ In the  _ morning.” _

Will couldn’t help a stupid grin at the sight of him. “Five thirty, actually. You can go back to bed. Tried to let you sleep.”

“Oh, five  _ thirty,  _ I see, what a completely normal -” Nico shook his head like,  _ I’m too tired for this.  _ “Yeah, I’m going back to sleep. I’m not an abomination against all things sane.”

Will turned back to his coffee and view and tried not to look too amused. “You’re so sweet in the mornings, darling.”

“Call me that again before noon and I’ll break your kneecaps.”

“After noon is fine, then?”

“Shut up.” Nico pinched his mouth like he always did when he was embarrassed.  He narrowed his eyes to the middle distance as he considered. Then, “Well, okay. It’s not off the table.” He yawned again. “I’m going back to bed.”

“Enjoy missing the sunrise!”

“I will.” He left, grumbling something or other about how it was too early for talking and being blond.

Will laughed into his sip and almost spilled.

A few hours later, after Will had done enough summer reading homework to want to throw the book out the window, he went back to his room.

He stifled a laugh at the sight inside. Nico must have fallen right onto the bed, blanket shawl and all, and immediately fallen back asleep, or at least that’s what it looked like. He seemed comfortable enough, though, and wasn’t smothering himself with Will’s blanket, so he considered that a win.

The golden light had faded from the room a bit, but it still lingered, along with lazily circling dust motes through the air. Will was going to climb back into bed and try out this whole  _ sleeping in  _ thing, but a whim caught him to open his closet instead.

He always hung up everything, even things that definitely could have just been folded, mostly because he hated folding and was forbidden by his mother to leave everything in a pile like he wanted to. At the inside corner was a guitar. 

He’d picked it up freshman year when he’d wanted to feel like he could contribute anything meaningful to the world, but was foiled by the virtues of being fourteen with no car or intelligence. So he’d spent everything he had on a guitar. Genius.

He took it out and settled on the edge of his bed, adjusting the body to sit on his lap. The strings were soft - he’d been scared at the guitar store alone and picked the one that hurt the least to play - and conjured an old song he’d known to pluck away at softly.

His fingers remembered their way around. He closed his eyes and let himself be carried away by the harmonies in the warm room.

He didn’t feel bad about possibly waking Nico up now. It was a reasonable hour for anyone to get up, even a vampire like him. After a little while, he felt Nico stir behind him, but he kept playing.

Nico yawned. “Mmrnng,” he grumbled, probably going for  _ morning. _ “You never said you play guitar.”

“I don’t, really.” Will spared a glance away from the strings and his heart flipped. If it was possible for Nico’s hair to get even more messed up, it had. Nico squinted like the soft morning glow of the room was just too much, too audaciously bright.

Will kept playing. “I just have it. Helps me think sometimes.”

Nico shuffled forward in his blanket bundle to peek over Will’s shoulder to the strings. “What’re you playing?”

“Why, like it?”

Nico shrugged, then seemed to give up on that whole thing. “Yeah. It’s pretty.”

“Thanks. I don’t know what it’s called. Learned it freshman year off the internet.”

Nico hooked his arms over Will’s shoulders, hanging off his neck and perching his chin on his shoulder. He hummed and stayed there while Will played. “I’m still mad we were at school together for two years and you never met me.”

Will raised his eyebrows, trying not to crack a smile. “You say that like it’s my fault.”

“It is.”

“Wha-” Will made an incredulous noise and messed up his chord. “Look what you’ve done. My art, squandered.”

“Sorry.” Nico didn’t sound sorry. His cheek brushed beside Will’s when he smiled.

Will waved the neck of the guitar vaguely. “Do you play?”

“A little. Bianca has an electric I’m not allowed to touch, but I was a devious eleven-year-old.”

Will laughed. “I see that. Wanna play?”

“Can’t. I’m left-handed. Like, I could try, but...”

Will nodded, remembering. “Right. Woah, this is a really specific brand of privilege I have. How can I use this for good?”

“Buy me left-handed instruments.”

“Ah. I take it back.”

Nico slumped and let his full weight pour on Will’s shoulders, face buried warm in the crook of Will’s neck. “I need coffee,” he grumbled.

“I made you some. Probably a little stale by now, but I kept it warm.”

Nico leaned forward so he could really look at Will and his eyes were full of reverence. “You’re the best human to ever live.”

Will smirked. “Thought you’d like that.”

Nico pressed a kiss to Will’s lips, sideways and not entirely coordinated, before hopping off the bed toward the door. “Come on. I feel weird walking around your house without you there.”

Will groaned. “When can you get over that? It’s warm in here and my mom isn’t even home.”

“Someday, when I stop fearing your mom.” The sun caught Nico’s hair like fire from this angle, a dichotomy of light and dark playing out a free art exhibit for Will. The curtain-softened light suited him, but in a different way than midnight. Maybe everything just suited Nico, with his perfect nose and those eyes that saw everything, and nature had conspired to help him perpetually give Will a heart attack. 

Nico finished, “And I will always fear your mom. C’mon.”

Will reached out and caught his wrist, trapped a bit by his guitar. “Wait. First.” He pulled him down and kissed him. Nico had to make a sort of accidental arabesque in the air to keep from falling over, and he quickly fell next to Will on the bed, knocking into the guitar. 

“Fuck, Solace, it’s only cute if no one gets stabbed with a tuner -”

Will shut him up with another kiss, because he liked when Nico said his name, and he liked Nico in the morning, and he liked having Nico in his room, and he liked the way Nico kissed him back like this had been his idea all along. 

He just really liked Nico. Here in the glow of morning turning to day, that was really all he needed.

“I really do want to get my coffee -” Nico started to mumble between kisses, but he helped Will push aside the guitar and so he could sit on Will’s lap instead, so Will went ahead and called bullshit on that one. He loved the feeling of Nico’s full weight on him, having to tilt his chin up for once to reach those lips, half-grinning as he held the back of Nico’s neck warm in his palm. 

When Nico was the one having to angle down and set the pace, it reminded Will all over again how Nico had chosen  _ him,  _ thought kissing him in a little unpainted bedroom was how he wanted to spend his morning, and it brought a lick of flame to his gut that made him pull Nico in more by the waist. 

Will felt Nico’s laugh through his ribs and welcomed it when Nico pushed them both back onto the bed. Will let himself be kissed and kissed on his sun-warmed sheets, marveling when they broke apart to breathe because Nico’s eyes glinted when they caught the light, irises like molten glass.

“You’re gorgeous,” he murmured, tracing his hands up Nico’s side, circling his cheek, anywhere, thinking with his hands. Nico had always had that olive tone under the surface, but here it shone, healthy, lucious. Will reached up to kiss him again.

“The fact that you can look like  _ that _ and say that is -” Nico couldn’t finish, giving in to Will’s pull, and he sort of fell until they ended up sideways. Will kissed him until he couldn’t remember what day it was, not the day it would be after, not the year or any deadline or major life decision that waited outside the window.

Their legs tangled lazily in the loose sheets. Will savored whatever that new cologne was that Nico had gotten that Will had still forgotten to ask about, and pulled away to breathe for a second, puffs of Nico’s hot breath mingling with his. Will realized he must be in like, actual love, because he didn’t care in the slightest about Nico’s morning breath. Gather up the wedding bells and send them a’chiming, folks.

Nico pulled him back in and kissed him, hands luxuriously slow through his hair, but then said, “If you think you can separate me from my coffee -”

“Fine! Fine.” Will paused there, the two of them intertwined as sunbeams fell on them as one muted unit. He smiled at the nearness of Nico, the warmth radiating from his skin and pooling in the small space between them. 

Will kissed him again, a last-ditch effort to stay and also just an enjoyable pastime. After a few moments of clear moral crisis where he kept kissing back, Nico pulled away. “I mean it!”

Will wanted to sue the concept of existence. He dropped his head in defeat and mumbled into Nico’s collarbone, “Y’know, it’s really better for you to skip coffee, I read somewhere that -”

“You made it for me!”

“I didn’t know you were going to be this warm.”

The sound of Nico’s scoffed laughter as Will’s nose bumped against his neck, the buzzing of his vocal chords. Intimate.

Will sighed. “I tried.”

“We can come back,” Nico said.

“No, we’re definitely coming back,” Will said, sitting up and settling his head back onto the pillow to face Nico. “You’re on house arrest, except it’s not your house. And only my room.”

“I don’t know how I deal with you.” Nico kissed him, short this time, and started to untangle their legs and sit up.

Will sat, too, able to acknowledge a battle lost when he saw one. “Must be hard. I’m just so demanding.”

“Mm,” Nico said. “The coffee might put you back on the leaderboards. We’ll see.”

“I mean, I cannot stress enough how stale it probably is by now.”

“Is it caffeine?”

“Yes.”

“Was it made for me by a blond angel that I somehow woke up next to?”

Will’s stomach did little jumps. “Debatable.”

“Good enough for me. We’re going.” Nico stood, blanket-caped once more.

Will sighed into eternity, staring at the ceiling of the warm, peaceful, perfect little nook Nico wanted to leave.

He swore to God. The things he did for this boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Call me a handmade quilt because we are SOFT today! Thanks for reading as always! *youtuber voice* Remember to like and subscribe, I mean kudo and uhhh comment (!!) so I face not the flailing inevitability of decay that stalks us all in the night!! Haha.... ha. ha. help me, youtube has me trapped in a cage and only feeds me when someone talks to me
> 
> (Forreal though, I've been going super hard with my novel recently putting in a TON of tiring calculated work and it's super nice to come here and just get to write what I want to and have a nice time with my boys and I'm glad that y'all can hopefully have a good time here, too. Thanks for reading!!)
> 
> 'Til next update!  
>    
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> twitter: sentimentalscr1


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